Studies show that binge drinking can cause the body to resist insulin, which is the main characteristic of type 2 diabetes.
The study comes from a team of researchers from the Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. It was found that alcohol leads to the swelling of the hypothalamus area of the brain. As a result, the inflammation causes insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes by disrupting the insulin receptor signaling process of the brain.People who suffer from type 2 diabetes have the ability to produce insulin but cannot use the insulin to properly metabolize and manage blood sugar, known as glucose.
"Insulin resistance had emerges as key metabolic defect leading to type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease," said the senior author of the study, Christoph Buettner, MD, PHD."Someone who regularly binges drinks even once a week, over many years, may remain in an insulin resistant state for an extended period of time, potentially years," said Dr. Buettner.
To conduct the study on the effects of binge drinking on the metabolic breakdown of glucose in the blood, researchers fed large amounts of alcohol to rats over the course of three days. This experimental simulation of excessive drinking, led researchers to find that the glucose metabolism or breakdown of sugar in the blood was undetectable. The finding were published in the Jan. 30 journal of Science Translational Medicine.
The rats that were fed the large amounts of alcohol were found to have higher levels of plasma insulin than the control group of rats. This confirmed that insulin was not effectively used and thus the rats were determined to have insulin resistance.
Over the past 25 years, the rate of type 2 diabetes has increased significantly and has been linked to obesity. Type 2 diabetes causes health complications including heart disease, stroke and kidney failure. The metabolic disorder can be managed with increased exercise, healthy eating habits and the monitoring of blood sugar levels. Medications such as Insulin or metaformin may be required in the event that blood sugar levels are still high. Some known natural treatments that may help to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes are cinnamon and bitter melon.
